Rotundus.com

So it's looking like I won't be in Paris after all this week as previously predicted. Wound up hitting another bureaucratic barrier in a very bureaucratic country - surprisingly I'm not talking about France here - that seems very difficult to route around short of a time machine, the time and hassle of filing way too much paperwork, and likely requiring a whole lot of money to put towards tax lawyers.

Air Transat was about half the price of the alternatives but unfortunately offers no-refunds and no-exchanges. Ah well... sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

Don't park your bike in the bike rack, it's unprofessional

Style over substance it seems... a story of a ticket issue by an office building in Vancouver complaining that parking a bike in their bike rack all day when working there created this bad image.

Big pharma mobilising patients in battle over drugs trials data

"Drugs companies publish only a fraction of their results and keep much of the information to themselves, but regulators want to ban the practice. If companies published all of their clinical trials data, independent scientists could reanalyse their results and check companies' claims about the safety and efficacy of drugs. ... While some companies have agreed to share data more freely, the industry has broadly resisted the moves."

The Hole in Our Collective Memory: How Copyright Made Mid-Century Books Vanish

The result of the expansion of copyright: "there were eight times as many books published in the 1980s as in the 1880s, but there are roughly as many titles available on Amazon for the two decades. A book published during the presidency of Chester A. Arthur has a greater chance of being in print today than one published during the time of Reagan."

Ultra-efficient LED puts out more power than is pumped in

"The LED produces 69 picowatts of light using 30 picowatts of power, giving it an efficiency of 230 percent. ... it doesn't violate the conservation of energy because it appears to draw in heat energy from its surroundings instead."

I'll be in Paris briefly later this week and felt reminded of the language barrier in place when reading
English is a dialect with an army:

A family of Americans came in, enthralled and confused. They were marveling at the breads, at the spices, the wines, the champagnes and the prepared dishes behind the counter. At the same time it was not clear how the family was supposed to get service. Could they touch the breads? Could they reach in and grab a tart? The cases were open. What were the rituals here? The mother, a bit flummoxed walked over to a counter and said to a man working behind it. "DO YOU SPEAK ANY ENGLISH?"

I have talked to this man before. We always start in French and go to English if there's a problem. I know he speaks a little English. But he looked at this woman, shook his head, and went right back to work.

The woman was being very rude, and I don't fault the man's response. But you must understand the impulse. You are the cultural conqueror. You wield the biggest guns. Somewhere in your home there is button which could erase civilization. And then you come to this place and find yourself disarmed. You see that it has its own culture, its own ages and venerable traditions, that the people do not tremble before you. And then you understand that there is not just intelligent life in outer space, but life so graceful that it shames you into silence.

I've had positive experiences in France in the past - they seem happier dealing with mediocre (at best) French than in my travels to Quebec. I can definitely understand getting cranky at some tourists though - particularly those who think that anyone can understand English if you speak it loudly enough.

The Dutch situation on the language front seems a bit different again. I recently stumbled across an article entitled Let us speak Dutch, say expats discussing some of the difficulties foreigners have had learning to speak Dutch due to the people there often switching to English if they detect a foreign accent. Still living in the area seems a good way to try to pickup the language. Will have to see how effective this trip is in that regard.

The Last Text You’ll Ever Send

"voice-activated systems to send and receive texts and email were the worst kind of distraction." Given no punching of keys required and the option to delay at least a few seconds in responding I'd have guessed the opposite.

Whole-Grain Foods Not Always Healthful

"whole grains may lack heart-healthy fiber—in fact, some processed forms increase cardiovascular risks"

Vancouver Pride Parade Numbers Just Don't Add Up

"According to Robinson's calculations, considering the route length (2.7 kilometres), a crowd of 700,000 would be packed 47 deep, shoulder-to-shoulder, on both sides of the route from start to finish, a physical impossibility thanks to sidewalks and storefronts. A crowd of 10 deep, shoulder-to-shoulder, on both sides of the route produces an attendance figure of less than 150,000. Because of the narrow viewing areas, concluded Robinson, particularly on Denman, the 2010 parade likely attracted roughly 90,000 attendees." The difference in figures seems to mean public funding for the parade.

Americans face driving dangers overseas

"Road accidents are the leading cause of tourist death and serious injury worldwide" - you should fear that more than terrorism.

Woman fined $219 for not paying bus fare with exact change

"With her two-year-old son, Xavier, in her arms, she had boarded the 108 Bannantyne bus home to Verdun around 10 p.m. after having spent five hours at the Montreal Children’s Hospital. She boarded the vehicle near Atwater Avenue and Ste-Catherine Street West. She searched through her purse for $3 in change for the fare, but only came up with a $5 bill. She said she offered it to the driver, who refused because the fare machine doesn’t accept bills."